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It has taken almost half the Blue Jays’ season for manager John Gibbons to have a clear vision of how his much-criticized bullpen can best be utilized, until help arrives.

On Sunday, in a 3-2 win over the Texas Rangers, the manager brought in left-hander Aaron Loup with two out and the bases loaded in the sixth. He struck out Leonys Martin. He brought right-hander Bo Schultz in with one out and the bases loaded in the seventh. He escaped allowing just one run. Then he brought closer-in-waiting Roberto Osuna in with two on and two out in the eighth and he struck out Shin-Soo Choo. Osuna then left the tying run on third base in the ninth, striking out Mitch Moreland.

“I feel good right now,” Gibbons said of his bullpen. “When we moved (Cecil) out of that closer role, it was, how are we going to do this? Osuna, (Steve) Delabar? For Osuna that’s his second (save) right there. There’s no doubt in my mind he can do it and be really good at it. I have a pretty good idea what I want to do. We’ll see how it plays out.”

At least for this day, Gibbons’ use of the relief corps played out perfectly for the Jays, who won a second straight series for the first time since winning four straight in the first half of the month. Both of Osuna’s saves have come in the last seven days, with a dominating fastball and a complementary changeup. Gibbons has spoken about the revelation that is the change, which Osuna worked on with catcher Russell Martin in the spring.

“From the get-go, I just realized that it was a good pitch that he had,” Martin said. “I feel like he already knew he had a good changeup and when you have a good pitch, you feel like you should use it. But his velocity’s picked up a little bit, so he’s got that electric fastball and a good changeup. But I feel like his most improved pitch is his slider. It’s short, it’s tight, it works off the same plane as his fastball. We haven’t seen it that much but I feel like it’s his most improved pitch so far.”

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Osuna’s emergence bodes well for the bullpen, now with a power arm at the back end instead of the tight-rope finesse of left-hander Brett Cecil, who for the moment will pitch in a setup role. Osuna seems fearless.

“I can’t throw every pitch at 97-98 (m.p.h.), so I try to locate my fastball a little bit better and go to the breaking ball off of that,” Osuna said. “I like (closing). I want to be in that situation. I feel very comfortable.”

The offence has seemingly struggled the last two games, scoring just three runs on seven hits in 18 innings. But they split those games, and the drought is over for at least for one key Jay. It had been 18 days since Josh Donaldson brought rain to a major-league ballpark, via a home run, but on Sunday, after 10 consecutive Jays had been retired by Texas starter Chi Chi Gonzalez, the man nicknamed Bringer of Rain finally went deep. Donaldson’s 18th home run snapped a scoreless tie.

“Today was one of those grind-it-out type of games,” Donaldson said. “Offensively the last couple days I felt like we we’ve been having some good at-bats and not having a lot of luck. The other team’s been playing some pretty good defence. At the same time, we’ve been doing the same, playing good defence, pitching well, getting out of some jams. I thought that was a really good win for us.”

While the steady rain outside forced the Rogers Centre roof to remain closed, the Donaldson homer was welcome relief for a Jays team that had been shut out for 12 straight innings. Donaldson, who is chasing a starting role at third base for the All-Star Game, has always made his home runs count. The 29-year-old has hit nine homers to give the Jays the lead in a game and three others that have tied the score.

“Maybe that just says that we play some tight games,” Donaldson shrugged. “I don’t know. But I’ve really felt, probably the last two weeks, that my quality of swings haven’t been up to par. Then, within the last two or three days, I’ve felt my quality of my swings was getting up higher and I really been having some pretty good at-bats the last two or three days. I really enjoyed that.”

As for Hutchison, he continued on his roll at home, moving his season record to 6-1 at the Rogers Centre, with a 2.12 ERA. He worked just 5 2/3 innings and 97 pitches. After retiring the first batter in the sixth, four of the next five batters reached base, one on a Devon Travis error.

“I had a good changeup today, I thought I located the ball well,” Hutchison said. “Obviously, it was disappointing not to get deep in the game. I was in control of the game at that point, then I get the first guy out. Then not to be able to make a pitch with two outs, the hit and the walk, but our bullpen came in and did the job, a really good all-around win.”

For the Jays, the one-run victory ran their record in such decisions to 9-15. The Jays have won just three games when scoring three runs or less. The others were May 4 and June 24. The Rangers have lost seven of their last eight games and head to Baltimore for a four-game set. The Jays host Boston.

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